On May 3, With the help of Yoko Takigawa, a member of the Association for the Protection of the UN Peace Bell and lecturer at the Japanese Department of Sofia University, Bulgaria, we gave a lecture on the UN Peace Bell to the students of the Japanese Department.
The lecture started at 6pm local time and was given remotely in Japan at midnight.
In addition to the students, Borislav Iliev, who found the 1kg replica of UN Peace bell on his pilgrimage to Shikoku, attended the lecture. And those who helped us with the world peace flag ceremony (WPFC) in Hiroshima(WPFC) last year also attended via ZOOM, and the lecture was accompanied by a projection of the presentation of many pictures about the history of the bell.
Dr. Stella Zhivkova was the main interpreter, and the fourth-year students took turns to try their hand at interpreting. Ms Takigawa emailed me to say that everyone listened intently, discussed and asked questions. We are looking forward to receiving comments and other information later on.
We would like to thank the Head of Japanese Studies Department Vice-dean of the Faculty of Classical and Modern Philology, Prof Gerkana Petkova, who gave the final address, and we thank her so much for her efforts. After the lecture, everyone rang the replica that Mr. Iliev brought with him. A new connection with Bulgaria was made successfully.
